Its Getting Hot In Here

This being the last few weeks of us all being together, I know people are pulling back a little doing their own thing. A post posted to MU Talk made recently, upset me more than a little. It felt stabby. I don’t think there’s a need for that. I’m sure the person was having an off day, as we all do.

That being said. I think that all of us as a family can agree, we need to lift each other up as artists, instead of maybe pulling each other down. We may not all get along or agree with each other but as Izzy has said before – treat others as you’d like to be treated.

Hugs to those that were hurt in this whole thing and healing pixie dust sprinkles and success to us all for the future.

Hi all! Thanks for sorting this out. Sorry, apologies, and sprinkles of love to all sides.

I don’t know everything that was said, but as best as I can understand it, I think what it really comes down to is MU being a large and diverse community.

We do have communication. But we don’t have any way to tell everybody everything. And given the number of people and activities, perhaps that’s impossible. When I have classes of 125 RL students, or even in classes of 25 RL students, it’s very hard to have everyone know everything.

So, yes, maybe if person A had come to Crit Class and learned about or discussed a given project, or if person B had discussed their vision on MU/Talk, or etc, etc.

In the end there are just really a lot of us with different projects, different temperaments, different ideologies, different aesthetics, and different goals. I honestly don’t know of a single person in the whole run of MU who has been a “bad actor.” Everyone I think has acted in good faith. Still, we’ve had our share of conflicts.

Before this event even started there was a months long sequence where person D drove person C away, and then later person E drove person D away, and then later person E just decided to leave. We’ve had many issues over intellectual property: Person F taking a picture of something on campus and blogging it, and then person G demanding that it be taken down, or person H posting a class transcript and then person I demanding that that be taken down.

One thing I have concluded is that in any future campus we’d have to have an IP policy that lets everyone be clear about what can and cannot be posted and what does and does not need permission.

As for the case at hand, I don’t see any party as “wrong” or “mean spirited”. I think it’s the diversity of our community and the fact that we can’t all spend 24/7 on campus knowing the details and depth of what everyone else is up to. A while back we had a vaguely similar situation where person J said that newcommer K was some kind of griefer and I should eject them, only to tell me days later that that was a mistake and K was actually a great artist.

More communication is a partial answer. We can’t always talk to everyone. We keep very different clocks. But as much as possible, maybe we should ask more questions when we see, hear, or read about someone’s project or opinion. In a way that’s is what happened here. So it’s almost all good. Except people were hurt along the way. Maybe we should try to ask more questions. Not judgmental questions, but inquisitive questions. Maybe I just don’t understand your vision. Maybe you just don’t realize there’s an easier and cheaper way to do it. Maybe I don’t understand that easy and cheap isn’t your vision. And so on.

My thanks to all for sorting it out. My apologies to all for the stress along the way. It’s been a long and wonderful semester. For sure there have been mistakes, stress, hurt feelings, and people have left campus. My hope is that while it’s been an imperfect semester, that in balance, we’ve done more good than harm. That we’ve lifted up more people than those who have been hurt.

I confess, MU grew so much and had so much going on that I could not cover everything as well as I had hoped when I took on the role of Blogger-in-Residence. So perhaps I missed an earlier presentation. I did not cite a source of information (it’s there on my Tumblr now) that may have made my skeptical perspective more understandable and less “stabby.” Hey, horsies! come back to the barn!

I’m still learning the trade and appreciate all the support I’ve received. I did not want to make everyone uncomfortable and so I apologize again for that.

MU has been an incredible experience. You really can’t expect there to be no misunderstandings and some hurt feelings with so many people involved. We are all passionate about what we do with the precious time we spend away from our primary lives. I salute those who made this possible and thank you from the bottom of my heart.